Nursing or breast pads are commonly used by nursing women to prevent milk, which may leak from the woman's breasts, from staining clothing and bed linens when the woman is not nursing. As such, the breast pad is typically comprised of a multi-layer material having high absorbency and a generally concave shape to snugly fit over the woman's breast, and particularly over the nipple portion of the breast. During nursing, a woman produces a first type of milk generally referred to as hind-type milk for nourishing the child. While initially the rate of milk production is unregulated, eventually the woman's milk production adjusts to the needs of the child. However, the production of a second type of milk, commonly referred to as fore-milk, continues regardless of the time of day and the child's feeding schedule, even in the event that a feeding is missed.
It is this fore-milk, which can give rise to leakage from the nipples, particularly at night. A nursing breast pad positioned over the nipple is intended to absorb leaked milk and prevent staining of garments and bed clothing, hence the high absorptivity of these breast pads. However, the leaked milk which is absorbed by the breast pad has nowhere to go and the wet breast pad remains in contact with the woman's nipple. Disposable nursing breast pads were introduced to at least partially address this problem by facilitating the frequent changing of the breast pad for the woman's comfort. However, occasions frequently arise when it is difficult, if not impossible, for a nursing woman to replace a saturated nursing breast pad with a dry one. One such occasion is at night when the woman is not nursing and is asleep. The longer the nipple remains in contact with the wet nursing breast pad, the more likely the nipple will become dry and cracked and quite sensitive to physical contact. This unfortunate set of circumstances frequently coincides with a highly sensitive condition in the woman's nipples arising from the breast feeding process itself.
It is, of course, highly desirable to maintain the nursing breast pad securely in fixed position over the woman's nipple. Adhesive materials have been applied to the outer surface of the nursing breast pad to engage and adhere to an inner surface of the woman's garment, such as a regular or nursing brassiere. It is particularly difficult to maintain the nursing breast pad in proper position at night during sleep when leakage from the woman is likely to stain the woman's bed clothing and bedding materials such as sheets and covers. Some nursing breast pads currently available make use of an adhesive disposed on an outer surface, but are of limited use because of the location and area of application of the adhesive material on the pad. Current nursing breast pads are easily detached from a woman's garment resulting in movement of the pad from the woman's nipple and/or folding over of the pad on itself so that it no longer engages the nipple resulting in failure of the pad to perform its intended function.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned limitations of prior art disposable nursing breast pads by providing a nursing breast pad having a lubricating moisturizer disposed on its inner surface and in contact with the woman's nipple for soothing and protecting the nipple from becoming dry and cracked making nursing difficult, if not impossible. The inventive disposable nursing pad further includes an adhesive material disposed on its outer surface in a manner which securely attaches the pad to the inner surface of the woman's garment, such as a regular or nursing brassiere, to securely maintain the pad in position over the woman's nipple, even at night while asleep.